1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a teleconference support system, and more particularly, to a teleconference support system for teleconferencing among a plurality of conference rooms.
2. Description of the Background Art
Teleconferences, which establish communication between a plurality of physically widely separated conference rooms remote from each other, may use telephone lines or the internet to connect the conference rooms. In such teleconferences, a video camera set in each of the conference rooms takes visual information, and then the visual information is distributed to other conference rooms in real time, enabling visual information of one conference room to be shared by other conference rooms.
Typically, information on the conference rooms to be used for a planned teleconference can be reserved and registered in advance in a server together with conference information such as conference starting time, using a web browser or the like. When the conference starting time has come, the reserved conference rooms can be automatically connected to each other by the server.
However, in the conventional method, conference rooms may be automatically connected with each other when the time becomes the conference starting time without consideration of actual conditions in the conference rooms. For example, some of the reserved conference rooms may not be ready for starting a teleconference, or a person different from the expected participant(s) may be present in the conference room at the starting time.
Accordingly, JP-2006-253775-A discloses a teleconference system in which the actual entrance of one conference participant (e.g., the conference session initiator, or moderator) in a given room is confirmed by another conference participant in another room, who receives a given signal from the moderator. For example, such teleconference system may include a communication unit to conduct a session for establishing communication between the moderator in one room and other participants in other rooms, a transmission/reception unit to transmit and receive audio information and video information, an output unit to output video received by the transmission/reception unit, and a control unit to control the transmission/reception unit not to start communication until a communication start instruction is received after establishing the session.
A drawback of the above-described approach is that users are required to start a teleconference even when the teleconference system is actually already ready for starting a teleconference. For example, users may be required to perform tasks such as conference initiation calling by one participant, recognition of conference initiation call by other participant(s), and a communication start instruction by other participant(s) who have received the conference initiation call. This approach is cumbersome, and as such, the teleconference may not be started until such user task is done.